TT Talk - Corner castings and Container Safety Convention (CSC)
Mike Compton also reported on an investigation into a container falling away from a front loading lift truck. This was caused by badly damaged corner castings on the container which did not arise from that particular lift but arose from some earlier incident. The metallurgy report indicated that the quality of the metal was correct and that the box was travelling under a properly authorised Continuous Examination Programme. As other corner castings have since been found in similar conditions in the same port, the Canadian report to DSC/12 recommended that there should be a review of the Container Safety Convention (CSC) of 1972 and also the ACEP provision within it.
CSC was adopted in 1972, having been developed in the late 1960s. Its aim was to impose a regime which will ensure that freight containers are maintained in a suitable condition to enable them to continue to be safely used in intermodal transport. However, it is undoubtedly true that in the intervening 35 years the numbers and use of freight containers have increased enormously and they are now used much more intensively than before.
With the ports industry handling an estimated 500 million TEU last year whilst the freight container population is approximately 21 million TEU, containers are now worked much harder than they were. Whilst the instances of damaged corner castings reported on by Canada were a small number and there was only one incident reported, the inspection reports from maritime administrations reported 2,500 approximately serious structural deficiencies and 600 CSC plate contraventions found in 2006 by the nine administrations making reports.
Tags
You may also be interested in:
TT Club has previously reported on incident experience whereby containers have dropped from lifting equipment during handling operations. Recurrence appears, as previously, to have nothing to do with the intrinsic quality of the corner castings. The reliability of the lifting process is critical.
Read more about the importance of ports of refuge with regards to the safety of our seafarers and the protection of our environment.
The use of standardised containers for much of global trade has become second nature; the range of cargo types utilising such units continues to expand. There is significant reliance placed by the various stakeholders on the overall integrity of the concept, some explicit and some implicit.
Five international freight transport and cargo handling organisations are collaborating on the production of new guidance on packing standards for freight containers and other cargo transport units. The Container Owners Association, the Global Shippers Forum, the International Cargo Handling Co-ordination Association, the TT Club and the World Shipping Council are co-operating on a range of activities to further the adoption and implementation of crucial safety practices throughout the global supply chain.